The Pythia program can be used to generate high-energy-physics ''events'', i.e. sets of outgoing particles produced in the interactions between two incoming particles. The objective is to provide as accurate as possible a representation of event properties in a wide range of reactions, within and beyond the Standard Model, with emphasis on those where strong interactions play a role, directly or indirectly, and therefore multihadronic final states are produced. The physics is then not understood well enough to give an exact description; instead the program has to be based on a combination of analytical results and various QCD-based models. This physics input is summarized here, for areas such as hard subprocesses, initial- and final-state parton showers, underlying events and beam remnants, fragmentation and decays, and much more. Furthermore, extensive information is provided on all program elements: subroutines and functions, switches and parameters, and particle and process data. This should allow the user to tailor the generation task to the topics of interest.

/pdf/pythia-6-4-physics-and-manual-3dvwmijpnq.pdf

PYTHIA 6.4 Physics and Manual

http://risa.stanford.edu/teaching/362/particledarkmatter.pdf

Particle dark matter: Evidence, candidates and constraints

This paper gives the 2010 self-consistent set of values of the basic constants and conversion factors of physics and chemistry recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) for international use. The 2010 adjustment takes into account the data considered in the 2006 adjustment as well as the data that became available from 1 January 2007, after the closing date of that adjustment, until 31 December 2010, the closing date of the new adjustment. Further, it describes in detail the adjustment of the values of the constants, including the selection of the final set of input data based on the results of least-squares analyses. The 2010 set replaces the previously recommended 2006 CODATA set and may also be found on the World Wide Web at physics.nist.gov/constants.

/pdf/codata-recommended-values-of-the-fundamental-physical-4bsdant71c.pdf

CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2006

Theory and phenomenology of two-Higgs-doublet models

We review the present status of QCD corrections to weak decays beyond the leading-logarithmic approximation, including particle-antiparticle mixing and rare and $\mathrm{CP}$-violating decays. After presenting the basic formalism for these calculations we discuss in detail the effective Hamiltonians of all decays for which the next-to-leading-order corrections are known. Subsequently, we present the phenomenological implications of these calculations. The values of various parameters are updated, in particular the mass of the newly discovered top quark. One of the central issues in this review are the theoretical uncertainties related to renormalization-scale ambiguities, which are substantially reduced by including next-to-leading-order corrections. The impact of this theoretical improvement on the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix is then illustrated. [S0034-6861(96)00304-2]

Weak decays beyond leading logarithms

I give a short overview of Chiral Perturbation Theory, its underlying assumptions and underpinnings. A few examples are included.

Chiral Perturbation Theory and Threshold Corrections

The present status of Chiral Perturbation Theory in the meson sector is discussed concentrating on recent developments. This write-up contains short discussions on a listing a few historical papers, the principles behind ChPT, two-flavour ChPT including some comments about the pion polarizability, three-flavour ChPT with a discussion of the recently found relations as tests of ChPT and preliminary results of a new fit of the NLO low-energy-constants (LECs). It discusses somewhat deeper $\eta\to3\pi$ and the arguments for the existence of a ``hard pion ChPT'' and its application to $K\to2\pi$.

Chiral perturbation theory in the meson sector

These are the proceedings of the workshop on ``Effective Field Theories in Nuclear, Particle and Atomic Physics'' held at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, Bad Honnef, Germany from December 13 to 17, 2005. The workshop concentrated on Effective Field Theory in many contexts. A first part was concerned with Chiral Perturbation Theory in its various settings and explored strongly its use in relation with lattice QCD. The second part consisted of progress in effective field theories in systems with one, two or more nucleons as well as atomic physics. Included are a short contribution per talk.

Effective field theories in nuclear particle and atomic physics

In this talk I give a short introduction to hard pion Chiral Perturbation Theory and an overview of the available applications $K\to\pi\pi$, $B,D\to D,\pi,K,\eta$ semileptonic decays and $\chi_{c0,2}\to\pi\pi,KK$. It is pointed out that the reults for the semileptonic decays obey the LEET relation between $f_+$ and $f_-$.

Johan Bijnens

Papers

Chiral Perturbation Theory and Threshold Corrections

Chiral perturbation theory in the meson sector

Effective field theories in nuclear particle and atomic physics

Hard Pion Chiral Perturbation Theory: What is it and is it relevant for $\eta^\prime$ decays?